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For Immediate Release

NIH Panel Links Vitamin A in Sunscreen to Skin Tumors

WASHINGTON - A key independent science advisory panel has voted to confirm federal
researchers' conclusion that retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A
found in two-fifths of U.S. sunscreens, speeds the development of skin
tumors and lesions when applied to the skin in the presence of sunlight.

The panel, meeting at a National Institutes of Health research center
in North Carolina, today concurred with a pivotal draft assessment
published last month by the National Toxicology Program, an interagency
federal body that uses toxicology and molecular biology to evaluate
chemicals for possible human health risks.

"A compound that causes skin damage and tumors on sun-exposed skin
has no place in sunscreens or other daytime skin products," said Jane
Houlihan, EWG senior vice president for research.

The NTP assessment, confirmed by its advisory board of 11 scientists
from leading academic medical and industry research groups, found that
when test animals coated with a mix of retinyl palmitate and skin cream
are exposed to ultraviolet light, a major component of sunlight, the
cream with retinyl palmitate has the perverse effect of stimulating the
growth of skin tumors.

Olga Naidenko, Ph.D., senior scientist with Environmental Working
Group, addressed the panel today, urging them to support the NTP
assessment. "This research will help fill the long-standing data gap on
the safety of retinyl palmitate in personal care products used on
sun-exposed skin," Naidenko said.

The panel's action is likely to have a significant impact on the U.S.
sunscreen industry, which adds vitamin A to 41 percent of its
sunscreens, ostensibly to combat aging (EWG 2010). Among the popular
brands that contain vitamin A are Coppertone, Banana Boat, Panama Jack,
Hawaiian Tropic, and Neutrogena.

The conclusions of the NTP and its advisory panel mirror EWG's analysis of raw NTP study data
published early last year. EWG's findings drew widespread attention in
the press and on health information sites on the Internet.

Today's action effectively demolishes objections from sunscreen
industry-funded groups, including the Personal Care Product Council,
paid consultants to sunscreen makers and the Skin Cancer Foundation,
which receives money from sunscreen makers in exchange for its seal of
approval.

More than 200 sunscreens from 44 companies listed vitamin A or
retinyl palmitate on their labels in 2010, according to EWG's analysis
of beach and sport sunscreens with SPF ratings of 15 or higher.

Following the release of EWG's May 2010 indictment of vitamin A in
sunscreen, two manufacturers - Mexitan and Dr. T's Supergoop! -
responded within weeks by marketing new, vitamin A-free formulas.

In light of the NTP's troubling findings, now confirmed by the
advisory body, more sunscreen makers can be expected to offer vitamin
A-free products for the 2011 summer season.

It is not clear how the federal Food and Drug Administration will
react to the NTP conclusions. The agency announced it would set rules
for sunscreens back in 1978, but despite repeated promises, it has yet
to issue comprehensive sunscreen regulations.

In the spring, EWG plans to release its fifth annual sunscreen guide,
rating this year's crop of products for safety and efficacy. As was the
case last year, sunscreens free of vitamin A will garner higher
ratings.

The NTP's December 2010 draft assessment summarizes a one-year cancer
study that culminated more than a decade of research by the National
Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), jointly funded by the NTP and
FDA. Since 2001 the center has published 17 studies and reviews on the
toxicity and chemistry of retinyl palmitate on skin. These documents
show that the chemical breaks down in sunlight to photomutagenic
compounds, forms skin damaging-free radicals, and "[causes] events that
affect a large segment of the chromosome" (Mei 2005, 2006; Xia 2006).

The NTP studied the effects of ultraviolet light exposure on test
animals whose skin had been treated with vitamin A-laced cream.
Scientists concluded that vitamin A hastened tumor and lesion growth and
caused the number of skin lesions and cancerous tumors to proliferate.

In light of those findings, EWG recommends that manufacturers of
cosmetics, sunscreens and other personal care products remove retinyl
palmitate from all products to be used on sun-exposed skin and that
consumers avoid buying products that contain this chemical.

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Further

Last week, the "world's most moral army" bombed and leveled Gaza's much-loved al-Meshal Theater and Cultural Center, rare home to hundreds of artists, dancers and writers and vital symbol of Palestinian identity, to "make residents feel the price of escalation." The next day, the Palestinian band al-Anqaa (or Phoenix) returned in defiance to play for their beleaguered neighbors, because "art is, too, a form of resistance."

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